Bound by a Sense of Victimhood, Serbia Sticks With Russia

[dalton99a]

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/30/world/europe/ukraine-serbia-russia.html

Bound by a Sense of Victimhood, Serbia Sticks With Russia
Andrew Higgins
March 30, 2022

BELGRADE, Serbia — Mindful of the angry and still-unhealed wounds left by NATO’s bombing of Serbia more than 20 years ago, Ukraine’s ambassador appeared on Serbian television after Russia invaded and bombed his country in the hope of rousing sympathy.

Instead of getting time to explain Ukraine’s misery, however, the ambassador, Oleksandr Aleksandrovych, had to sit through rants by pro-Russian Serbian commentators, and long videos of Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, denouncing Ukraine as a nest of Nazis. The show, broadcast by the pro-government Happy TV, lasted three hours, more than half of which featured Mr. Putin.

Angry at the on-air ambush, the ambassador complained to the producer about the pro-Kremlin propaganda exercise, but was told not to take it personally and that Mr. Putin “is good for our ratings.”

While Germany, Poland and several other E.U. countries display solidarity with Ukraine by flying its flag outside their Belgrade embassies, a nearby street pays tribute to Mr. Putin. A mural painted on the wall features an image of the Russian leader alongside the Serbian word for “brother.”

The victim narrative is so strong among some in Serbia that Informer, a raucous tabloid newspaper that often reflects the thinking of Mr. Vucic, the president, last month reported Russia’s preparations for its invasion of Ukraine with a front-page headline recasting Moscow as a blameless innocent: “Ukraine attacks Russia!” it screamed.

[DanieRains]

1. Srebrenica_massacre

Go to hell Serbia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srebrenica_massacre

Ethnic Cleansing isn't as cool as it used to be assholes.

[DanieRains]

2. Your Hero Serbia? Mladic

Convicted of war crimes and rots in prison.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratko_Mladi%C4%87

[Wingus Dingus]

3. Serbia and Russia...the mean kids on the block.

[Coventina]

4. With all due respect: Serbia can fuck right off.

They want a "pure" Orthodox nation and plotted with Croatia to ethnically cleanse all the Muslims from Bosnia.

Fuck them and their victimhood.

[Wounded Bear]

5. The Serbia-Russia connection goes way back, to pre WWI days...

when Russia allied with them against the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Doesn't make them right now, but I can see where the connection comes from. SE Europe, the Balkans have not really ironed out all of their ethnic problems that date back hundreds of years.

[Igel]

6. Russia supported a number of Orthodox countries.

It's not an accident that Bulgarian has a lot of Russian loanwords.

Russia supported a lot of nationalist movements against the Ottomans. Serbs among them--Croatians are more Catholic. Austro-Hungarian and all that. "Support" meant all kinds of things. Sometimes just printing breviaries in the local languages and smuggling them in when the Ottomans forbad it. Sometimes smuggling in political tracts. Or just plain literature. (The kind of stuff that the tsars banned in Ukraine as subversive, mind you.)

A lot of the ill-will against Albanians (or Kosovars) or Bosnians is because they adopted the religion of their oppressors' oppressors. Partly to avoid the devshirme, partly to be privileged in courts and the civil service.

Worked the same in Mughal India. Result was about the same.

[Hekate]

7. Why did I read that as Siberia?